Partial Retraction

I have long-maintained that it wasn't that Dallas drivers are bad in bad conditions, but that in fact everyone would have major issues with the typical bad Dallas weather. 

Usually, when Dallas has winter weather in the form of precipitation, it's freezing rain, ice, and sleet. 

I truly believe that no one can drive on ice.  All cities would have to shut down and cars that were out in it would have a good chance of wrecking.

I still believe that.

But today, it's snowing in Dallas.  Legitimate snow.  They're saying we might get an inch in Dallas, maybe even 1.5.  Normal people can drive in that without any big incident.  I've concluded Texans can't. 

My office closed early today.  I usually work from home on Fridays, but we had an important meeting set for this afternoon, with several people coming in from out of the country.  They had been in Chicago the last few days.  They flew to Dallas, landed around 11, looked around and decided to get right back on a flight to Chicago.  They didn't even try to make it to our office.  So meeting canceled, I headed home. 

I was particularly nervous about driving home.  It's only about 4 miles by highway, but this morning, I got a flat tire on the way to work.  Someone was waving at me on the highway, rolled down his window, and then shouted at me that I had a flat.  It was weird because I hadn't felt it yet.  My exit was less than 2 miles away, and it never started flapping, so I drove all the way to the office.  Not smart, I know, but this meeting was super important, I was wearing shoes that hurt my feet, and it was super-cold out. 

Roadside assistance came to work and put on my spare (driving on the flat meant it ended up with a huge rip in it).  So I knew I couldn't drive over 50.  I was trying to decide whether to take the highway or take side streets (for the most part, my running commute).  I can see the highway from my office, and it was moving slowly, so that was my decision.

Texans can't drive in the snow.  The rest of the country (or at least a large part of it) can.  We are highly deficient here. 

About an inch of lovely powdery snow.  The news right now is reporting a 40 CAR pileup on the highway near our house (further north of us, but same road).  They've said it's maybe only 17 cars, but one of their reporters is saying 40.  But that's not normal.  That's Texas-sized ridiculousness.

I get it, we just don't get any practice driving in it, but it just shouldn't be this hard. 

It took me more than 30 minutes to drive the almost 4 miles home, but now I'm safe and sound and tucked in, and by the time my husband gets off work, hopefully the bulk of people will have gotten home, so it won't be as bad.